The latest edition of the UK Riichi Open took place over the weekend of July 27th and 28th, 2024. Sixty players from nine countries competed over eight hanchans at the Masonic Hall in Godalming. Many players took advantage of early registration on Friday evening at The Star pub in Godalming town centre. Several practice games took place with traditional English pub hospitality.
The start on Saturday morning was delayed for about 15 minutes when it was discovered that a train from London with five players aboard was held up due to a signalling failure. Four of these players were ferried by car to the venue, while one player elected to compete with Usain Bolt’s running prowess by ‘legging it’ to the Hall and arriving to rapturous applause for his effort.
The tournament proceeded smoothly after that until an unusual problem emerged. At one table, an eagle-eyed player noticed that one of the green dragons had a small paint smudge on the side of the tile. This smudge became visible when the tile was at the end of the wall, smudge facing outwards, enabling the tile to be identified despite resting face down. A substitute set was borrowed from Benoit Dessort, and play resumed.
There were two Yakuman scores: Pavel Bogachev clinching Daisangen from an unfortunate opponent in the second round and Martin Lester assembling Suuankou in the last round.
At the end of it all, the winners were:
| 1st | Yangdong Xiao | 176,400 |
| 2nd | Jay Li | 120,900 |
| 3rd | Barry Crilley | 120,200 |
Congratulations to the prize winners and thanks to all the competitors and reserve/substitute players for ensuring yet another successful tournament.